Nassar Mansour

Nassar was born in Amman, Jordan. He is the youngest son of the well-known Jordanian-Palestinian poet Muhammad Mansour Abu Mansour (1913-2000). His family came originally from Joureesh (جوريش), Nablus in Palestine, but Nassar has lived his entire life in Amman. He obtained his BA in Islamic studies, economics and statistics from the University of Jordan in 1988. Later in 1997, he graduated with an MA degree in Islamic Arts specializing in Islamic Calligraphy from Al al-Bayt University in Jordan. In 2007, Nassar was awarded a PhD in the Art of Islamic Calligraphy from the Prince's School of Traditional Arts (PSTA), London.

Nassar's Ijaza, 2003

Nassar started his academic career straight after graduation as a lecturer (1988-1995) of Arabic Calligraphy at the Faculty of Education and the Language Centre at the University of Jordan. In 1998, he became a member of Al-Balqa` Applied University in Jordan where he contributed to the Institute of Traditional Islamic Arts setting up in 1998. This institute was responsible for the reconstruction of the twelfth-century Saladin's pulpit (minbar) (منبر صلاح الدين) which was later in 2006 installed in its original place at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Nassar was mainly in charge of redrawing and designing the entire inscriptions and ornamentation of the Minbar. Nassar lectured at the Prince's School of Traditional Arts from 2002 to 2007 while working on his PhD. Nassar currently is the professor of Islamic Calligraphy and Qur’anic manuscripts at the department of Islamic Arts, at the College of Islamic Arts and Architecture, W.I.S.E University, Jordan, and a researcher in The Islamic Manuscript Association (TIMA), Cambridge, a project of cataloguing the Mamluk and Ilkhanid Qur’an manuscripts at Dar el-Kotob in Cairo.

Kun, 2003, permanent collection at The British Museum, London.

Nassar's calligraphy works reflect the content and the meaning of the words and text, a style he has developed over the last 20 years of practice and research. His artworks demonstrate beauty and simplicity. His works are not limited to ink on paper, they extend to other media such as stone, ceramic, mosaic, glass, wood, metals and more.

Nassar's Art works are to be found at the permanent collections of many world museums such as: The British Museum in London, The Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy in Moscow, The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, The Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts in Amman and in many private collections around the world. He has participated in numerous calligraphy conferences, workshops and exhibitions in the Middle East, Europe, USA, Australia, Canada, Pakistan, Malaysia, Iran, Russia and Japan.

Solo exhibitions references

• 2017 From the Heart to the Pen, Arabic Calligraphy Artworks, in collaboration with his pupil Sir Mark Allen, Calligraphy Museum, Sharjah.

HUWA catalogue cover

• 2017 HUWA, Arabic Calligraphy Artworks, Tabari ArtSpace, Dubai.
• 2010 Curated the exhibition “The Ultimate Journey” at the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts on the occasion of the celebration of al-Quds (Jerusalem) Capital of Arab Culture.
• 2007 “Muhaqqaq and More”, Arabic Calligraphy Artworks, The Prince's School of Traditional Arts Gallery, London.
• 2005 “Making of the Master”, the story of the Ijaza tradition in Islamic Calligraphy, curated by Nassar Mansour in corporation with Venetia Porter, The British Museum, London.
• 1998 Ahl al-Bayt, Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts, Amman.

“If you come from a tradition that has renounced representation in religious context, such as Islam (there are no image in the Koran or in mosque), how do you-how can you-shape that thinking through Art? Nassar Mansour's Kun shows exactly the same moment of creation as represented in Michelangelo, but graphically. The Qur’an describes the moment of creation as “He said to him, ‘Be!’ and it was.” The artist, instead of showing the event, shows us the Word of the Arabic script itself; Kun is the Arabic for “be”. The creation of humanity. The continuing word. A totally different way of imagining ourselves. Neil MacGregor, Director of The British Museum (2002 to 2015).

“Mansour is a khattat, a calligrapher who not only writes the basmala well but who "has dedicated his life to the service of beautiful writing, the essence of the meaning of the word calligraphy", according to Venetia Porter, Assistant Keeper (Curator), Islamic and Contemporary Middle East Department, The British Museum.

Sir Mark Allen wrote: "Mansour is notable for the mission we see in his art and his writing to give new life to the venerable Muhaqqaq script, one of the six classical scripts of Arabic calligraphy”.

“I studied calligraphy for a few months with Nassar Mansour, a Jordanian artist, a very serious and exacting teacher. I was only able to study erratically, but it gave me neuromas admiration for these artists and the traditions in which they work”. Vikram Seth, Trustee of The British Museum.

“Kun is an extraordinarily elegant and powerful graphic work, and obviously very much part of the Arabic tradition of calligraphy which goes back 1,500 years or so. But you do not have to be able to read Arabic to enjoy it –this is just a beautiful abstract design. The fact that it is a wird adds a punch”. David Barrie, Director, The Art Fund UK.

• Kun I (Be) Black ink and gold leaf drawing on muraqqa paper, signed and dated in Arabic; calligraphic composition with the Arabic word كن (kun) in kufic script.
• Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy
• http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=31440
• http://www.calligraphy-museum.com/en/participants/jo/Nassar_Mansour
• http://www.bagrifoundation.org/media/drnassarmansour/
• https://www.facebook.com/NassarM/
• https://www.tabariartspace.com/blogs/exhibitions/nassar-mansour
• http://royalasiaticsociety.org/tag/dr-nassar-mansour/
• https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=IUXeXwIAAAAJ&hl=en
• https://www.bibalex.org/en/events/eventdetails?id=48756